Week 1 Sept 9 Introduction

The first work I am interested in learning more about is October Gone...Goodnight, 1973 by Barkley L. Hendricks. This was the first work I was drawn to, in part because of its size and the representation of a Black female subject with glasses and an afro looking not unlike myself. Upon closer examination, the presentation of the body in 3 profiles presented some sort of commodification of the body as object through this presentation. I also noticed the detailed shading of the body and skin against a very flat and 2D white shape that look like a dress but also has no shading and no shape within the whiteness which makes me consider the relationship between Blackness and whiteness and how one is defined against the other in complex ways. It is interesting that the detail presented here is in the Blackness.

The second work I am interested in is Plate Four 1992 by Glenn Ligon. The print becoming increasingly unclear upon and increasingly populated background also highlights the definition of self-vs other in a binary sense whereby the definitions of Blackness are constantly in dialogue with whiteness as a necessary point of comparison.

The third work that interests me is the Small Kneeling Figure from the Late Period to Ptolemaic mid-7th late 1st century BCE. I am curious as to the significance of the pose kneeling but on tip toes with palms down and slightly separated above one another. What does this iconography signify? What does the material of leaded bronze signify? Why is it so small? Is it part of a larger collection? Who made it and for what purpose? How has it been obtained from its originator into the Harvard Art Museums from Harry J. Denbury?

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